The National Capitol 35 hasten my departure, and is in a very bad humour with me because I insist in waiting until the large picture of General WTashington is secured, and it requires to be unscrued from the wall.This process was found too tedious for these perilous moments.I have ordered the frame to be broken and the can- vas taken out.It is done; and the precious portrait placed in the hands of two gentlemen of New York for safe-keeping. And now, my dear sister, I must leave this house, or the retreating army will make me a prisoner in it by filling up the road I am directed to take." The city was soon deserted, except by lawlessness and anarchy."Many passed the night," writes Ingersoll, " in huts and cornfields around the town.The first considerable dwelling the enemy was to pass had been Mr. Gallatin's residence, the house of Mr. Sewall, some hundred yards east of the Capitol.From behind the side wall of that house, as is supposed, at all events from or near to it, a solitary musket, fired by some excited and perhaps intoxicated person, believed to be a well-known Irish barber, but never ascertained who was the perpetrator, no doubt aimed at General Ross, killed the bay mare he rode." On reaching the Capitol, the enemy detailed a body of men to take pos- session of the building.Admiral Cockburn, incensed, no doubt, by the shot which killed Ross's horse, impudently ascended the rostrum in the House of Representatives, sprang into the Speaker's chair in his muddy boots, and, calling his battle-stained troops to order in mock parliament, shouted deri- sively: "Shall this harbor of Yankee Democracy be burned ?All for it will say, Aye!" An unanimous cry in the affirmative arosefrom the soldiers, and the order was cheerfully given.By means of rockets, tar barrels found in the neighborhood, broken furniture, heaps of books from the Library, and pictures, including the full-length paintings * of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI., which had been presented by that unfortunate monarch to Congress, the whole structure was soon in flames. This infamous act stamped Sir GeorgeCockburn, admiral and baronet of England, a barbarian who justly merits the contempt of posterity. How strange that it fell to his lot, in the autumn of t8i, tri- umphantly to execute in the "Northumberland" the sentence of deportation to St. Helena, which had been passed upon Bonaparte. Fortunately, the storm which had been threatening during the approach of the English, aided by a few patriotic hands, finally extinguishedthe flames. But too late!It is recorded as having had a velocity so great as to destroy many buildings and trees in the city, and asportending to the superstitious such dire calamity as the upheavals in Rome when Casar fell. Rev. G. R. Gleig, who, with a detachment of the British troops,had spent the night in the storm outside the city, and whose ardor was, nodoubt, damp- resolution of Congress containing letter of acceptance, see Appendix, p. 26o 36 The National Capitol ened thereby, says: "As soon as dawn appeared, the brigade moved from its bivouac on the common, and marched into the town.Proceeding along a narrow street, which was crossed at right angles by two or three of a similar description, we arrived at a large open space, surrounded on three sides by the rudiments of a square, and having its fourth imperfectly occupied by the ruins of the Senate-House.It is slightly raised above the level of the rest of the city, and is crossed by a paltry stream, called in true Yankee grandiloquence, the Tiber, as the hill itself is called the Capitol.Here the brigade halted, and piling their arms in two close columns, the men were permitted to lie down." By this invasion of the English, the last volumes of the manuscript rec- ords of the Committees of Ways and Means, Claims and Pensions, and Revo- lutionary Claims, which were then being prepared for Congress, were destroyed, in spite of the fact that after the battle of Bladensburg they were remOved by Mr. Frost to the "house commonly called George Washington's, which house being unexpectedly consumed by fire, these records were unfortunately lost." The Congressional Library, and the secret journal of Congress, which was kept in a private drawer and in the hurry forgotten, were consumed in the building itself, together with many private papers, petitions, valuable effects and the private accounts and vouchers of Patrick Magruder, Clerk of the House of Representatives, among which were unfortunately the accounts and receipts for the expenditure of the contingent moneys of the House.These last were locked in a private drawer to which Magruder only had the key, and the clerks, delaying breaking it open, finally forgot them.The ExeCutive Departments of the government, however, removed their effects in time to a place of safety under the direction of their Secretaries, a fact which served to heighten the criticism heaped upon the authorities at the Capitol for the irreparable loss sustained there. Considerable light is thrown upon the subject by the letter of the Clerk to the House, September 20, 1814, and by the enclosed report addressed to him by his assistants, S. Bnrch and J. T. Frost, from which itseems Magruder in July had gone to the Springs for his health,so that he was absent from the city, when unexpectedly, on August r9th, "the whole body of themilitia of the District of Columbia was called out, under which callevery clerk of the office was taken into the field, except Mr. Frost, and marchedto meet the enemy." On the aist, Burch was furloughed at the request of ColonelGeorge Magruder, in order that he might return to the Capitol andsave such papers as was possible "in case the enemy should get possession of the place."He arrived the same night.His instructions were, however, not to begin pack- ing up until "the clerks at the War Officewere engaged in that business," which he did not ascertain to be thecase until noon of the 22dAt that late hour, Burch found that the fewconveyances which had not already been The National Capitol 37 "impressed into the service of the United States for the transportation of the baggage of the army," were loaded with private effects, and these he could not hire; nor had he the power to impress them.As a last resort, he dis- patched three messengers into the country, one of whom obtained from John \Vilson, whose residence was six miles from the city, a cart and four oxen, vhidh did not arrive until after dark.With this primitive conveyance, that very night, they transported some of the papers to a secret spot nine miles from Washington, and continued to remove such books and records as they were able with the one cart until the morning of the battle.Strange to say, a goodly part of the papers so removed turned out to be valuable. Popular feeling at the time in America regarding the whole affair naturally was bitter, and was voiced by Jefferson in a letter of February 14, i8x5, from Monticello to his friend, the Marquis de Lafayette: "The force desig- nated by the president was double what was necessary, but failed, as is the general opinion, through the insubordination of Armstrong, who would never believe the attack intended until it was actually made, and the sluggishness of Winder before the occasion, and his indecision during it.Still, in the end, the transaction has helped rather than hurt us, by arousing the general indig- nation of our country, and marking to the world of Europe the vandalism and brutal character of the English Government.It has merely served to immortalise their infamy." Even many Englishmen bitterly condemned the acts perpetrated by their countrymen in the American capital, as unworthy of civilized warfare.The letter of Grenville to John Trumbull of November 23, 1814, though couched in most diplomatic language, does not wholly conceal his true feelings: "I was prepared and resolved to pursue the subject further, nor did I desist from that intention, until 1 received public and solemn assurances, that orders had already been sent out to America for the discontinuance of such measures, and for a return of the practice of modern and civilized war, provided the same course shall in future be adhered to by those whom I lament to call our enemies."The London Sfafrs,nan went so far as to say: "Willingly would we throw a veil of oblivion over our transactions at Washington.The Cos- sacks spared Paris, but we spared not the Capitol of America." RE-ASSEMBLING OF CONGRESS Tua triumphal entry of the British into the capital, the destruction of the government buildings by fire, and the retreat the following day, created intense excitement in the land.Because of the extraordinary necessity, Congress was convened in extra session at Washington, September9th, by special proclamation of the President: WASHINGTON, September 17, iSi4. SIR: The destruction of the Capitol, by the enemy, having made it necessary that other accommodations should be provided for the meeting of Congress, Chambers for the Senate and for the House of Representatives, with other requisite apartments, have been fitted up, under the direction of the Superintendent of the City, in the public building heretofore allotted for the Post and other public offices. JAMES MADISON. The story of the re-assembling of Congress is told by Paul Jennings, the colored body servant of James Madison and, afterwards, the servant of Daniel Webster, more clearly than by some learned writers.